The Arkansas River Valley got to cheer loudly Saturday afternoon as the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns shot down the top-ranked women's basketball team in NCAA Division II.

The Suns garnered their eighth win of the season, and began their Gulf South Conference schedule on the right foot with a 72-55 victory over top-ranked Henderson State in Arkadelphia. As you'll read on today's sports page, Tech jumped out to an early lead, was tied with the Lady Reddies at halftime and put the game away in the final 7 minutes.

Avenging a 5-point loss to Henderson State last February, the Golden Suns handed the Lady Reddies their first defeat of the season (11-1) and their first loss on their home floor since the 2004-05 season. That streak began, by the way, with a victory over ATU.

The Suns -- who entered the week as the fifth all-time winningest NCAA Division II women's basketball team in the nation, including NAIA national championships in 1992-93 and NCAA Division II national runner-up in 1999 --have a little time to savor this huge win before another road contest Thursday at Christian Brothers and returning home to Tucker Coliseum next Saturday. Any coach in the country will tell you, a team's goal when conference season begins is win your home games, and be competitive enough to steal some more on the road.

Tech just didn't steal their win over the nation's top-ranked team. They won in impressive fashion. We applaud the players, their coach, Todd Schaefer, and assistants for not only putting together a game plan to claim a crucial league victory on the road, but executing that plan to success.

And, we also got to call the Hogs on Saturday as Arkansas opened up Southeastern Conference play by simply whipping the No. 8-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 88-61 at Fayetteville. It's nice to quiet down the Alabama faithful for a while, after Nick Saban grabbed the national spotlight by becoming Alabama's football coach to the tune of a $40 million deal.

After losing to Missouri, Texas Tech and Texas in front of a national television audience, it was great to see the Razorbacks thump the Tide on Saturday's regional telecast. It's time to ride this momentum through more SEC victories, and get back to the NCAA's Big Dance in March.

When they return home, head out to Tucker Coliseum to pump up Arkansas Tech's basketball teams and root them on to more victories this season.